A luxury new Learjet being built by Northern Ireland’s largest private employer has been delayed by nearly a year because of technical problems. Bombardier said yesterday that the launch of the $20 million Learjet 85 would be pushed back to summer 2014 as the company grapples with the technology required to build an aircraft made entirely from composite materials.

The wing panels and spars — the wings’ structural member — for the Learjet 85 will be made at Bombardier’s factory in Belfast, where the Canadian company employs about 5,500 people.

Pierre Beaudoin, the chief executive, would not say how the delay might